Feininger wrote of his return to America in 1937: "I am in a very unusual frame of mind, at present. Imagine the almost unprecedented homecoming of an American after nearly 50 years' entire absence. . .to his native city. The changes that have taken place in that period of time are astonishing enough; but, on the other hand, so much still remains in parts of the city, unchanged, just as it was in the 1880s, that it calls up all my fondest boyhood memories. . . .There is nothing that does not affect me in some way; every step I take is a source of pure delight."